


you're asking me will my love grow.

by cp035



Category: Dancing with the Stars (US) RPF, Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M, Girl Talk with Charlie, I Blame Tumblr, Male-Female Friendship, Multi, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-25
Updated: 2014-05-25
Packaged: 2018-01-26 10:04:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1684391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cp035/pseuds/cp035
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Meryl's a little confused, so Charlie sets her straight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you're asking me will my love grow.

**Author's Note:**

> I *promised* I would write a Maksyl fic and I'm SO sorry this is so late. This isn't "Charlie setting up Meryl's perfect date with Maks", but it is VERY loosely related to "Charlie White (and Meryl Davis) Gets the Girl." It's more of a similarity in the themes. Anyway, hope you guys like it!

He knew when she called him something had to be wrong. 

 

Usually, Charlie liked seeing Meryl's face take up his entire phone screen, a silly grin on her face and a sparkly pink ' _Happy New Year's!_ ' hat pinned into spiral-curled hair from her tandem New Year's Eve Birthday Bash. Even if it had only gone until seven at night, and most of their friends hadn't been able to make it- Meryl definitely knew how to throw a party. 

 

 _Okay,_ fine.

 

It was really only their families and Marina, who brought her boyfriend- that actually showed up, but that was just as well. It was the middle of an Olympic season after all, and Meryl had loved her presents. Wasn't her being happy all that really mattered on her birthday? 

 

Late night deep thoughts aside; Meryl, despite having a trust fund set up since conception, was spartan with her spending and preached "quality over quantity" like it was straight out of Jesus' mouth. There was _no way_ she was footing the bill for two missed calls from New York City to Ann Arbor, Michigan unless there was some kind of imminent crisis.

 

Foolishly, Charlie had already lost time leaving the phone to ring for those precious seconds. He'd thought maybe- it was his mother or one of his sisters, or Alex Shibutani from Russia, where it was probably noon and he was probably getting really bored. 

 

_They could all wait._

 

Especially since Tanith was dead tired and sprawled across his chest, making small noises of pure contentment in her sleep. 

 

_But Meryl?_

 

Maybe she couldn't wait.

 

She was in New York City, which had an exponentially higher crime rate than the suburbs of Detroit where they had grown up, not to mention- even more terrible drivers and an eternally confusing public transportation system. They could show the awesome subway all the wanted in movies. Charlie knew for a fact in real life, the subway _sucked_ \- and cabs didn't stop even for Madonna.

 

Maybe the food poisoning had gotten worse and she was really sick.

 

Maybe she'd gotten really drunk and locked up and she was his phone call.

 

No, Meryl wouldn't do that.

 

But she was definitely in trouble. 

 

He jerked his phone from the charger, and swiped a finger across the screen with the kind of urgency usually reserved for action movies. 

 

"Charlie? _Hello?_ " 

 

Behind her thin, high, voice; Charlie could hear pounding music and a buzz of laughter, snippets of conversations and the slosh of-

 

" _Are you at a club_?", he stage-whispered, incredulous.

 

Sure, he knew that all the time she spent hanging around with Maks had changed her, but somehow, he'd never wanted to know exactly how much. He'd take that PG-13, TV-ready story about how _he'd taught her to stick up for herself_. Meryl having more confidence was nice. He'd always wished the best for her, and that was never going to change.

 

The rest of her and Maks' _thing_ , as far as Charlie was concerned, belonged at the bottom of a page in the National Enquirer. 

 

 _Stupid_ rumours. 

 

 _Stupid_ romantic TV _bullshit._

 

"In the bathroom, _now-_ anyway.", she supplied, sighing. "I have headphones on so I can hear you."

 

"Always gotta bring those headphones."

 

"Ha. I...they don't have good beer here."

 

Charlie chuckled softly. If he hadn't seen it for himself every time Scott Moir took it upon himself to make sure all of Team Canton could get safely liquored up before the Grand Prix season started in his basement- he wouldn't have pegged Meryl for a beer girl, either. "And what's good beer?" 

 

"You know...Corona. And Blue Ribbon.", she muttered. Charlie would have never pegged her to have such poor taste, either, but it was kind of endearing, after all. 

 

"Knew it. You're hipster trash, Meryl Elizabeth."

 

"Like you're any better. I didn't like those stupid pink martinis Val kept buying, so I told them I thought I saw Johnny Weir on the balcony and ditched him and Maks with their friends. I just...this is silly. I hope I didn't wake you up." Charlie could hear a toilet flushing and someone scream out _"Selfie!_ " in the background. Still, the edge of worry in her voice was clear as day.

 

_What does she have to be worried about?_

 

As far as he knew, Meryl had been having a great time in New York. There were lots of appearances and lots of paparazzi, and she'd finally caved and let Maks buy her a pretty new blue dress. _Only from Bloomingdale's_ , she had said in her Twitter messages- _so it didn't cost that much_. Twitter was free and their choice mode of communication because of it.

 

"No..of course not. I'm awake, trying to uh- well, I think my sleep schedule is still kind of messed up, so I was going to make blueberry pancakes."

 

"It's three-thirty in the morning in Michigan, Charlie. I haven't been gone for that long.", Meryl chuckled. 

 

"Yeah, but it'll be cool. Me and Tanith should get an early breakfast anyway. I think she has to coach at six." 

 

As if on cue, Tanith stirred in her sleep, rolling over to her side of the bed. For two fractions of a second, Charlie was terrified she was going to wake up, find him on the phone with Meryl while he played with her hair with his free hand and kick him out of her life _for good_.

 

But then again, weren't they over that? He was ready to take the next steps with her, and they were both very excited.

 

Instead, she curled herself around a pillow and hugged it to her chest, her mouth slightly open and her breathing still slow with sleep. Tanith would have some wicked bedhead in later morning, Charlie thought to himself.

 

He tucked a sheet around her, and pressed a kiss to her forehead. Tanith looked so peaceful and beautiful asleep, and he couldn't help but smile. He was definitely very _excited_.

 

But, back to Meryl.

 

"Oh.", she said."I kind of forgot there was still- can I say something really, _really_ , bad?"

 

"I don't know, Meryl. What's the worst thing you're ever said? _Frick?_ "

 

He heard her groan.

 

Charlie gently shut the bedroom door behind him padded down to the kitchen, where he decided, he would have to make Tanith breakfast in bed after all. Meryl could always tell when he was lying, even over the phone- and he didn't want her to think he had turned into a moral degenerate who didn't at least try to make sure his girlfriend woke up to a healthy, balanced, breakfast in her absence.

 

No, he was a moral degenerate who had happily dreamed of ripping Maksim Chemerkovskiy's arms off with his teeth while spooning with said girlfriend. But that was beside the point.

 

"No…it's _fricking_ not, Charlie. It's…will you promise me you won't laugh?"

 

"Of course not. Meryl, it's okay. I'm just this idiot from Ann Arbor. I _cried_ in Marley  & Me. Think about that. No one important."

 

He had told her thing plenty of times over the years, usually before they went before a particularly hungry crowd at a press conference; or when they were younger- and someone had made fun of her voice and insisted she would never be taken seriously sounding like that. It helped her to have a focus, and sometimes; a softer place to land.

 

Maybe that was all this was. She was a little overwhelmed by all the attention, and that was fine.

 

"It's…it's been really- After winning, it's kind of like…living in a bubble.", she said, haltingly. Charlie pulled pancake batter from the pantry and frozen blueberries from their freezer.

 

"Like…after Sochi?"

 

"Kind of. But not…it's different. It's a different kind of bubble. Everything's going really fast and I have no idea what I'm doing here. Charlie- _I have no idea who any of this works_."

 

"Yes, you do.", he reassured, pouring a cup of milk into the batter mix. "You're doing great. I mean, you're the star of the whole show, and I meant it when I said I couldn't be prouder. Just let yourself have fun, Meryl, please. There's no one who deserves this as much as you do."

 

"I don't…", Meryl began, then paused, hearing Charlie's tired sigh through her tinny headphone speakers. "Did you see Maks and I on the Wendy Williams show yesterday?"

 

"Wendy Williams…the tennis player? What's she doing talking to a figure skater? You know the winter team and the summer team don't associate; Meryl- I'm _shocked_!", he joked, easily, pleased to hear her giggle on the other end. A small giggle. Worth it.

 

"She's a- a talk show host. She asked Maks and I if we were _smushing._ "

 

"Smush… _-what_?"

 

"Having, um- dating, you know- having sex. Charlie, it was _humiliating_ , and I- I don't know how to do this."

 

Charlie slammed down the plastic bowl he had been stirring batter in on the counter. "That's ridiculous. It's disrespectful, and disgusting, and-"

 

"I said no."

 

_Thank God._

 

Charlie quickly buried that thought. He was her best friend in the world, for God's sake. He might be a moral degenerate, but he would not be _that guy_. If Meryl wanted to _fuck_ Maks, so be it. She was twenty-seven and totally had her own life. He absolutely refused to call it _making love_.

 

"Well, you didn't have to- you shouldn't even have dignified that with a response."

 

" _Someone…someone texted my Mom asking if we were fucking_ , Charlie-", there was a newfound desperation in her voice, and he could hear the sound of anxious, unshed tears in the back of her throat. "People print these articles and everyone says such _stupid_ things and I think- Charlie; _does everyone think I'm just a desperate slut who would do anything to win?_ "

 

_"No!"_

 

 _Desperate slut_ and _Meryl Davis_ didn't belong in the same conversation, unless he and Evan Bates were discussing what they had done last Sunday night ( Evan: watched the new Bachelorette, Charlie: watched a very good in-flight movie with Meryl).

 

"Because…I don't- I don't know if that's what this all is to _Maks._ "

 

Sometimes, Charlie desperately wished that being a nice guy was just an act he put on for the cameras. It would have been so much easier to tell Meryl that he absolutely _hated_ Maks; who didn't even know her all that well and was so clearly just riding the Meryl Davis train all the way to a better reputation and the stupid _fricking_ Mirrorball Trophy; and had a _stupid_ accent and a _stupid_ face and was just going to be one big, dumb, frankly embarrassing _mistake_ that he would never let her live down.

 

Except he didn't really hate Maks.

 

_He couldn't._

 

Not when he could practically see the heart-eyes springing out of Meryl's face every time Maks texted, or sat beside them on the plane and pretended to be interested in her latest favorite books. Usually, that would count as a strike against him, but some of the things Meryl liked were really weird. At least, he and Maks could agree that was endearing.

 

So Meryl liked him, and for the sake of Charlie's sanity, well- he chose his next words carefully.

 

"Maks... would _never_ hurt you like that. I mean, a lot of the things he says are jokes and they're kind of-", _Shut Up, Charlie,_ he reminded himself, "- but I'm a guy and Meryl, if  you think Maks is just fooling around with you so he can have good press, then you're the one who's being an _idiot_ ; thinking real life is all about some stupid reality show.", he told her.

 

"There are a lot of people out there who would do _anything_ to make you happy. You just have to let them.", he added, an unintended afterthought as he spooned the pancake batter into a skillet.

 

He and Tanith just bought a house. He was supposed to be over this, too.

 

There was a long pause on Meryl's end.

 

"I guess so."

 

He breathed a sigh of relief he hadn't realized he was holding in.

 

"It's still kind of… _confusing,_ though.", she confessed.

 

Charlie turned up the stove.

 

"What's confusing? You and Maks like each other. Talk about it if you're that worried. It probably won't be as bad as you think."

 

"He'll think it's silly and stupid. Charlie, he thinks I'm this _amazing_ person who did all of these things and when he finds out that I'm _just_ Meryl, he'll-"

 

" _Think you're even cooler?_ Look at that. Fifteen-hundred miles away and I still know exactly how to finish your sentences.", he quipped. "Seriously. Just talk to him. Take it slow if you want to. Or…faster, I guess. It's up to you. But don't let… _Wendy Williams the fucking talk show host_ wreck something that could be really, really, good. That's silly and really stupid."

 

"It is, isn't it? God, I _hated_ Wendy." She sounded so much calmer now.

 

Charlie flipped the pancake over in the skillet, and lowered the heat slightly. This one was going to be just slightly burnt, but that was fine. He'd eat it, and give Tanith the good ones.

 

"Just promise me _one_ thing- Meryl, you have to swear on DJ's happiness. This is _serious._ "

 

"Shoot."

 

"Please don't name your kids Boris and Oleg. I mean- I know you're some big shot _celebrity_ now and I'm just _Charlie_ \- but doesn't Pavel sound so much better? Or the _classic_ Oleksander. What about _Sergei_..."

 

He had started to list off the names of their Russian competition, and she started to laugh.

 

Charlie tried not to grimace.


End file.
